1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to protecting mobile platforms from theft as the mobile platforms are transported between the manufacturer and a customer.
2. Background Information
A laptop computer may be viewed as a portable personal computer of a size suitable to rest comfortably on one""s legs. A laptop is smaller than a xe2x80x9cluggablexe2x80x9d computer (portable, but not comfortably) but bigger than a xe2x80x9cpalmtopxe2x80x9d computer (easily carried in one hand or a shirt pocket). As a mobile platform, laptops have experienced exponential popularity ever since Toshiba introduced the first laptop in 1989.
Along with the rise in laptop popularity has been an increase in laptop theft. This increase in theft has reached the point where theft is the number one problem facing mobile computer users. In 1996, 265,000 laptops were stolen in the United States. And in 1997, 309,000 laptops were stolen. This trend is made particularly acute in a 1999 news article published by the Los Angeles Times, where the headline asserted, xe2x80x9cHot Trend in Computers: Laptop Theft Going Up as Fast as Chip Speeds.xe2x80x9d L.A. Times, Business at C7, Apr. 11, 1999.
A significant part of the laptop theft problem occurs while the laptop is transported in the distribution channel between the laptop manufacturer and the consumer. Thieves have taken laptops off loading docks and in large volumes by hijacking trucks and trains transporting laptops. In an even more disturbing trend, thieves have been targeting laptop customers as they leave a store with their new laptop as reported in xe2x80x9cLaptops are Target of Quick Robberies,xe2x80x9d Sun-Sentinel (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.), Aug. 21, 1999.
A variety of devices and services are available to prevent channel theft of laptops. Alarm systems may be added to a laptop. Some alarm systems include motion sensors that sound when the laptop case is moved; others are designed to go off when the laptop is removed from the laptop case. Most laptops today include an aperture through which a security cable may be inserted. In addition, theft tracking services are available to laptop owners. For example, if a laptop is stolen and at some later time connected to a phone line, the laptop computer employs the security software installed by the tracking service to secretly call the tracking service and report the location of the laptop.
The problem with the above types of laptop protection devices is that they are only directed at laptop theft from a user (user theft). None of them protect the laptop from theft or discourage theft as the laptop is transported in the stream of commerce between the laptop manufacturer and the consumer. In particular to the phone home software subscription service, the laptop unit first needs to be powered up so that subscription credentials can be manually installed. At the manufacturing or shipping stage of a laptop, this manual installation of software is a time consuming task. Moreover, this would not discourage thieves as they could use the laptop without ever connecting the laptop to a phone system.
Computer system designers have thus turned to preboot authorization through password protection. Preboot authorization may be viewed as authorization requested by a platform prior to the system booting up. A password is an arbitrary string of characters chosen by a user in order to prevent unauthorized access to a computer platform. To achieve this, a password is used to authenticate the user when that user attempts to boot or log onto the system.
A problem with password protection is that, by themselves, they are insufficient. First, they are only directed at user theft, not theft as the laptop travels in the stream of commerce. Moreover, passwords can be determined through strategic guesses or they can be cracked or hacked. A favorite activity among crackers is writing programs that attempt to discover passwords by using lists of commonly chosen passwords such as people""s names (spelled forwards or backwards). Moreover, by removing the battery powering the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) of most platforms, the password is erased so that the platform becomes accessible. A web site dedicated to describing techniques of bypassing the basic input/output system (BIOS) password of mobile platforms may be found at  less than http://pimall.com/nais/ n.pass.html greater than  or  less than http://www.goodnet.com/xcx9cjeriii/info/pchack.htm greater than .
Thus, what is needed is theft protection for a laptop as the laptop is transported in the stream of commerce from the laptop manufacturer through retailers to the consumer.
The present invention relates to wirelessly locking a computer platform to discourage theft as the platform is transported in a distribution channel. A computer platform having a chipset, a random access memory (RAM) coupled to the chipset, a central processing unit coupled to the chipset, a protected storage device in communication with the chipset, and a wireless communication device coupled to the chipset is presented. A radio signal having an authentication lock is introduced into the wireless communication device. The authentication lock is then placed in the protected storage device. The computer platform is placed in the distribution channel.